Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-09-11
DEMAND FOR SKILLED LABOR
In Machine shops Great-The Countrys
Iron and steel Productions.

In Machine shops Great-The Countrys
Iron and steel Productions.
The demand for skilled labor in machine
shops OF all kinds throughout the country
Is greater at this time than for several
years. Special arrangements have been
made to securei English and German labor
within the next ninety days. Farm hands
are being initiated into the mysteries Of
the machine shop, tempted by the higher
wayes offered. Leading manufacturers are
beginning now To recognize the very urgent
necessity for technical education. Foreign
laborers, although skilled in their own
country. have to be in many respects re-
taught here. \ number of shops in In
diana. Illinois and west Of the Mississippi
are at this time IN need of skilled work
men. and there is an emigration of ma
chinists from the east 10 the west, al
though it has not assumed very large pro-
portions.
Two million dollors will shortly be in
vested in textile mills in a dozen OF more
eastern towns. The Maine manufacturing
Ceuters are beginning to feel the stimulus
Of increasing manufacturing activity.
Several large cotton concerns are enlarging
their facilities, among them the Lonsdale,
the Globe, the Nerrick and the AmOskeag
Great improvements are being introduced
INTO these new mills. The LOnSdAle Is I'm
ishing one OF the finest factories ever built
The Otis Company is building huge mill
40 by IL feet. The Pacific Company, at
Lawrence, Mas is building an immense
mill lliby Il feet. The Cheney Bros. are
building mill 325 by 90 feet All the
eastern silk mills are very busy.
The following statement by James NJ.
Swauk is given about the iron and steel
production in the country in 1886:
The production Of iron and steel in the
United States in l~S6 was much the largest
that hss taken place IN any year in the his
tory OF the country. At the close OF the
year the United States was the first country
IN the world in the production of steel in
its crude form, Of manufactured steel and
manufactured iron, and had made great
stride in lesscniug the distance which
separated itOnly from Great Britain In the
production of pig iron. The production OF
IRON ore was also much larger than IN any
previous year, amounting in round num-
bers To 10000, 900 gross tons. Notwlth'
standing this Roadway in the iron trade,
the imports last year were enormous, IL
Guiding Sol, 76S gross tons of pig iron, o.
81 tons OF Oil and scrap iron and steel, ~, .
li9 tons of bar iron, Al, SCI tons Of steel
rails, Ia, 322 tons of cotton ties, l49, 3S1
tons Of steel ingots, billets and bars, 25I,-
~ tons Of TIN plates, and l36, 965 tons OF
wire rods.
Comparing the production OF some OF the
leading articles of iron and steel in 1856
and $50 in all the grand divisions Of the
United States, there is observable a giant
stride. All the rails made in 1855, namely,
4 l,1g2 COL net tons, were steel rails, except
only -, 679 net tons of iron rails. During
the period covered by these thirty years
this couutry built up an iron rail industry
which in lS72 produced 905, $50 net tons
OF iron rails, aud when iron rails had served
their day built up steel rail industry
which in lSS6 produced l, SOS, 922 net tons
Of steel rails This country is the producer
OF - per cent of the worlds annual out
put Of steel